[renewiltord]

Interesting. I don't think everyone shares that perspective. Certainly I think this software is sort of like an oil exploration expedition. It's going to cost a lot of work, there's a lot of stuff on-site you can't really reuse, and at the end you sometimes fail to find oil. But you built the thing to search for the oil, not to get the oil.

Shell spent billions on trying to find oil in the Chukchi Sea and there isn't enough to be worth it. But if you don't do things like that you don't find the other big finds.

That's why you don't fall in love with the software. It's there to see if the product is viable. Honestly, I like that environment.

[rurp]

But in Google's case they often do find oil, but then just dump it in the ocean. Lots of people used and enjoyed Inbox, Hangouts, Reader, etc, etc; but Google just discarded them anyway.

Spending years building something that thousands/millions of people end up using and liking, and then seeing it killed anyway, has to be discouraging.

[renewiltord]

Honestly, that's the dream. If you have product market fit, Google paid for the search, and now you can go make it later because it doesn't fit into their vision? Amazing. Ready-made startup.